Independent Writing Project: Sports Fiction

Author’s Note

Dear Reader,

I hope you will enjoy reading my piece, but before that, here are a few things that I feel will help you understand and appreciate my piece better.

My piece is about two high schoolers, Darius and Jacob, and their journey to get along through the game of basketball. They are both very talented basketball players, arguably the two best players in the grade, but they just can’t get along. Their relationship has gotten off to the wrong start as Jacob has developed an erroneous impression of Darius and Darius isn’t interested in becoming friends with Jacob. This tension between them transfers to the basketball court during the regular season and playoffs. And the only way to win the championship is to work together.

Being a basketball player myself, I enjoy reading sports books. After reading numerous Mike Lupica stories, I’ve began to gain an interest in the genre of sports. I saw this unit, the Independent Writing Project, as an opportunity to write in the genre I loved to read.

One thing to note is that I wrote this piece in third person and payed special attention to the way I used dialogue. I wanted used dialogue to display the different characters and personalities and used the narrator’s voice to explain and connects the different perspectives. Finally, I set a goal for myself at the start of this unit: to use irony in my piece. I studied about irony in the Graphic Novel unit and wanted to include this element in my writing.

Finally, what is attached below is still a work in progress. This isn’t the final, completed product and I plan to add more chapters to this book.

Overall, I am pretty proud of my piece and I hope you enjoy!

Johan Chua

May 24 & 25, 2017

Flashback: School Hallways, August 20, 2017

“I loathe Darius. Period. There is no way I will ever like him.” Jacob grumbled to Ray as they were walking down the hallway.

“Why- and speaking of Darius, here he is,” Ray said, pointing to Darius who was the center of attention in his friend group. As Jacob and Ray passed by the Darius and his friends, they all suddenly started looking at Jacob while trying their best to stifle their laughter. Embarrassed and puzzled, Jacob, with his head down, walked as quickly as he could, evading the uproar. After turning the corner of the hallway and getting out of sight from Darius, Jacob expeditiously kicked the nearest locker.

“Woah there. Relax. Why are you so mad?” commented Ray.

“Him! Darius. He keeps on talking about me, making me look bad in front of all the popular kids.” Jacob replied.

“It’s fine. See, my mom told me this: What someone says about you says more about them than about yo-”

“I don’t care what your mom told you! I'm going to class.”

Darius isn’t as bad as Jacob thinks he is. What Jacob didn’t know was that Darius was actually laughing at his good friend, Charlie, behind Jacob. Charlie was trying to do the Moonwalk but was failing miserably, so bad even he himself was laughing. Darius pointed this out to all his friends and soon enough, everyone was dying of laughter. It had nothing to do with Jacob.

And it was because of instances like these, Jacob has gotten a negative impression of Darius, and Darius has developed a sense that Jacob doesn’t want to become friends and get along with him.

What?!: Coach’s office, February 15, 2017

“Congrats on making the playoffs Coach! With two players as talented as Jacob and Darius on the same team, Los Angeles High should easily win the championship,” the school’s principal told Coach Scott, the coach of the school’s varsity team, the one with Jacob and Darius.

“Well...We’ll see,” Coach replied.

Confused, the principal questioned, “Why do you seem unsure about that?”

“There’s a slight issue: they don’t work well together. And honestly...this lack of chemistry will be revealed when we play good teams later in the semis and finals. I mean, they carried the team to the playoffs, but it's very likely that they will fall apart when they play good teams.”

Coach was right. With the semifinals and finals coming up soon, Jacob and Darius better learn how to work together, because hogging the ball and doing everything one on one style will not work.

Darius...: School Hallways, February 15, 2017

“So how was your game yesterday?” Ray asked Jacob.

“Same as usual: Darius doesn’t pass whatsoever. Like, just before the first half ended, our team got the rebound and I sprinted down the floor, Darius had the ball and he saw that I was wide open, but instead of passing it, with the clock running down, he chucked it from halfcourt and it didn’t even come close. During the plays, whenever I cut and am wide open, he doesn’t pass. He chooses to shoot contested fadeaway shots instead of passing it to a wide open teammate for three.”

“Maybe he didn’t see you. Did you call for it?” Ray asked.

“Yep, so loud that people outside the gym could hear me. Plus, he has decent court vision”

“Well, that’s not good,” Ray commented.

“Obviously!”

First Round of Playoffs: Gym, February 20, 2017

“Let's go boys!!!” Darius yelled. It’s the semi-finals. Los Angeles High vs Lynbrook High.

In the huddle, Coach Scott told the team, “Lynbrook is a pretty easy team, but that doesn’t mean we don’t play our hardest. Let's go out there and get this W. LA High on 3. 1, 2, 3, LA High.” Bzzzzzz. The game began.

LA High started strong, going on a 10-0 run in the first half. This was their game to win. Buckets after buckets from Darius and Jacob. Jacob would get the ball, jab step, fake left, drive right, reverse layup finish, and one. Darius two dribble pull up from three. Jacob scores, then Darius scores, Jacob scores, and so on. Both of them would not pass to anyone. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 50-33, LA with a 17 point lead. This was their opportunity to advance to the finals, this was Jacob and Darius’ opportunity to compete for the championship. All they had to do was not blow this lead. Then came the fourth quarter.

Lynbrook High’s ball. They quickly inbounded the ball, pushed the ball down the court and drained a quick three. Down to a 14 point lead. Darius brings the ball down double behind the back crossover and is one step ahead of his defender. Jacob cuts backdoor and is wide open, wide open. Darius sees that and instead of passing it for a wide open layup, he shoots a contested mid-range shot that is very short. Lynbrook gets the rebound and gets a layup off of the fast break. Down to a 12 point lead. With five minutes left, Darius brings the ball down again. He calls for a screen from Jacob and the defenders double Darius, leaving Jacob open. Jacob rolls to the midrange corner and calls for the ball. However, as usual, Darius shoots the shot contested by two defenders instead of passing it to Jacob. Lynbrook pushes the ball again and gets a midrange catch and shoot. 10 point lead. Coach Scott calls timeout.

“Guys. Think! Use your brain! Darius! You out here chucking up absolutely terrible shots. Pass the stupid ball,” Coach yelled, “Let's go win this ball game. Pick it up. Let's go.” LA High’s ball. They inbound it to Jacob. He finds his teammate open for a layup, but it gets blocked. Lynbrook brings the ball down and runs Horns, which gets them an open weak side three. Splash. Lynbrook starts pressing and LA High turns the ball over. Off the sideline inbound, Lynbrook gets a layup from their play. Five point lead with one minute to play. Embarrassed by his team’s inability to maintain a 20 point lead, Coach Scott calls another timeout.

Jacob brings up the ball and calls for a double screen. After the big rolls, Jacob hit him with a sweet bounce pass, through the legs of a defender and landed perfectly right in his hands. This layup could seal the deal. He goes up strong and lays it up with good touch. But it goes in and out! He bricked the layup.

“Really?! You’re kidding me,” said Jacob.

“Wow, just wow,” said Darius. Coach, with his hands covering his face, couldn’t believe it either. Being the magical team they are, Lynbrook sprints down the floor, creating a three on two fast break. Their point guard passes it to the wing on the left side who then passes it to the third man who makes the layup. BLEEEP.

“WHAT?! NO,” Jacob shouted. It was an and-one. He nails the free throw. Two point game with 30 seconds to go. All LA High has to do is make a basket to make this game a two possession game. Darius has the ball. 20 seconds left in the game. He dribbles the ball to the left wing and fakes a handoff to Jacob. The defenders miscommunicated and were both guarding Darius. Jacob, once again wide open, immediately rolled to the basket. But Darius pulls up for a long two pointer. Oh no. Jacob thought to himself. He gets into position to grab the rebound. But Darius made the shot. The whole gym was in an uproar. Darius was celebrating like crazy. 52-48.18 seconds left. Lynbrook quickly inbounds the ball but it gets stolen. Jacob deflected the inbounds pass and it misdirected it to his teammate, who passed it back to a cutting Jacob for the layup. 56-48. Los Angeles High are advancing to the finals after barely winning their semifinal game.

After Semi Final Game: Coach Scott’s Office, February 21, 2017

“Hello gentlemen,” said Coach as he welcomed Darius and Jacob, “Take a seat. I called you here today because I wanted to talk with you about something. That something is chemistry. There were many occasions where you two displayed how you did not want to work togeth-”

“Well actually Coach, I pass the ball many times yesterday,” Darius interrupted.

Coach immediately disagreed, “You did not. Okay. So where was I?... Yes, we still won yesterday, and you can ignore this chemistry issue, but it will show up in the finals when we play Saratoga High. Let me show you something.” Coach Scott opened to his computer and navigated to a Youtube video tittled “The power of ball movement”. He played the video and explained to Darius and Jacob about how off the court many of these players hate each other, but on the court they set aside their differences and get business done. He preached that at any given time, passing and good ball movement is better than one on one style basketball.

“What separates the good teams from the bad is one thing: if that team is a team or not. What does that mean? Real teams are families, they work together. Those teams are way more successful. What I’m trying to say is that you two can make this team so much better just by simply passing the ball more, and making our group of boys that make up this team a team.”

With the finals just a week away, Darius and Jacob would have to change in order to be able to compete and even keep up with the very talented Saratogo team.

NNF Reflection

I felt that the Narrative Non Fiction unit was a unit that helped me grow a lot as a writer. A few things that I wanted to learn or needed to learn as we went into the Narrative NonFiction unit of study was how to do proper research and how to take my research and turn it into a narrative nonfiction piece.

Throughout the unit, I learned different skills and techniques, including how to research and write narrative nonfiction. Something interesting that I learned from Mr Riley about researching using a book was the technique of reading a page and then summarizing the page in your head without looking at it and turn those ideas into three to five bullet points. I showed this learning by using this strategy during my research. Also, I learned the process of researching about one individual and creating a story from that.

During this unit, I’ve hit many “roadblocks”. One specific “roadblock” I hit was when I couldn’t find any information online about my topic. I found 0 sources online. I overcame this “roadblock” by interviewing Mr Riley and using newspapers and books for my research. Another “roadblock” that I hit during the process of making my chapter was when I received feedback from Mr Arleth about how my chapter did not have much rising tension. From this, I added more rising tension to make my book flow more smoothly, making it sound like one story instead of a bunch of summaries of Hurkos’ visions.

After I learned what I wanted to learn, I applied this new knowledge to my chapter and research. A couple examples of this was when I used Mr Riley’s technique in my research and used Mr Arleth’s feedback to improve my writing. Overall, I felt that this was a very unique and interesting unit.

My Book: https://drive.google.com/a/sas.edu.sg/file/d/0B7oIUmWCW5wiZjdLcy1NVkxZckk/view?usp=sharing

NNF Chapter

https://drive.google.com/a/sas.edu.sg/file/d/0B7oIUmWCW5wiZjdLcy1NVkxZckk/view?usp=sharing

Persuasive Speech

Here is a video of me giving a speech about making music mandatory at SAS. I wrote this speech after creating a podcast about music at SAS.

Getting On The Right Note - Music In Middle School

I am most proud of my soundbites in my podcast. I felt that I chose good soundbites from my interviews that represented all perspectives on my topic. I also felt that I did a good job with my bridges and transitions. One example that I am most proud of is when I added a bridge in the middle of my soundbite to connect the two ideas my interviewee talked about. 

My biggest challenge with this podcast would have to be putting research (quotes and statistics) into the podcast script. I felt that this was difficult as I had to find the right evidence that flowed with the ideas my interviewees talked about instead of evidence that was off track and would just make listeners confused. 

Something I wish I had more time to fine tune would be my research. There is always room for improvement and I feel that I could’ve worked on phrasing my research in a more efficient way that leaves less room for confusion. I feel that my evidence is already quite good, but I feel that if I had to fine tune something, it would be the way I phrased my evidence.

One piece of unintended learning I discovered during this unit was that you should always check your recordings before you leave the recording studio. This was because a couple of my recordings were started too late and I had to re-record using my computer microphone, which is very different in terms of sound quality compared to the microphone at the Note Pad.

My interviews went pretty well as I was able to get the sound bites I needed to represent the different perspectives the community had on my issue. I built rapport by asking them about background information on their musical history. For example, with Brian, I asked him if he plays a musical instrument (3:36 in the interview clip). This helps build rapport as this was a question that helped me get to know Brian better and it was also related to my topic, so it didn’t bring the interview off track.

I think I did a good job with my interviews, but something that I could improve on would be my follow up questions. Overall, I felt that I did a good job with my follow-up questions, but there is always room for growth. During Brian’s interview, I asked him, “If I am not mistaken, you play a musical instrument right? And what is that instrument? Why will you keep on playing and learning that instrument?” He told me he played the clarinet and the french horn and he likes the challenges that come with learning the instrument. Learning that Brian has been learning musical instruments for a long time and being a musician myself, I wanted to know his views on his ability to play the french horn impacting him. So I then asked three more follow-up questions: When did you start playing the french horn? And has the ability to play the french horn, does affect your feelings or emotions? How about stress levels. Do you think that a musical instrument helps with the amount of stress someone feels?

Application Essay Unit Reflection

Dear Mrs. Windust and Mr. Arleth,

During this unit, I learned so much about the interesting blend of narrative and reflective writing and the process of writing an application essay. I have learned so much that I can’t fit all of the learning in this one letter. From the high schoolers, I’ve learned that you should write the essay so that it reflects how you think, your personality, and how you communicate. At first, I tried adding all of this vocabulary in my essay which I later then found out was a bad idea because the essay started to not sound like me anymore.

On top of that, I also learned about the transitions and the basic structure of an application essay from you guys. There should be both reflection and narrative writing in the piece. In my opinion, the long hours of revising and editing my piece was all worth it, but If I could go back and do something differently, I would cut more fat, add more reflection, and get feedback from you in the mornings or after school.

Looking back at my On-Demand, I noticed how my On-Demand didn’t have much reflection while my application essay did. That was something I was really proud of. As I revised my essay, it watched it transform from a very narrative dominant voice to a mix that sounded more like Armpit Hair. The moment I took a step back and realized the difference between my first draft and my final essay was the best part about this unit for me.

Overall, this essay taught me so much about reflective writing and I am very thankful that I got to learn more about this new style of writing.

Your Dedicated RLA Student,

Johan Chua

_________________________________________________________________________

Here is an excerpt that comes from the middle of my essay:

"That day, it was finally time I accepted the fact that there are no shortcut around waiting and patience. It is inevitable that one would experience delays and the need to wait. You just have to learn to deal with it.

Letter To My Past Self

Dear Johan,

It's going to be a prolonged and gruelling experience. It will test you. But in the end, you will pull through and mature as a stronger individual.

The next stage of your 7th-grade science curriculum you’re about to face will make you make mistakes, it will make you lose your cool. But listen to me, don’t attempt avoiding the mistakes, you will need them. They will help you with your future.

You have always worked well with others in regards to group projects, however, when the many opportunities to become a leader came your way, you have always declined. But the continuation of not grabbing opportunities is inevitable. One day you will have to become a leader, and that day will be very soon.

Your next science unit is natural disasters. You will be put into a group not of your choosing consisting of two other members, one being supportive, cooperative, and friendly, and the other you could say the opposite of that.

Working in a team setting always has its challenges. Different individuals have different perspectives, personalities, and ways they take on tasks. Listen, you will have differences with your teammates. You will feel like you want to work against them instead of with them, however, you’ll have to learn how to manage conflict.

On top of the various personalities in your team, no one will step up and become the leader of the group, so you will have to take on that responsibility. It will make you anxious, but stay tough.

Being the project group leader is something you have little experience with, and if not done correctly, can cause your team to fall apart, and you do not want your team to fall apart.

As you try out this new experience for the first time, you will have disagreements, you will carry extra burdens, you will feel pressured to keep your team moving in the right direction, you will make mistakes. . Those mistakes are what will shape you and make you who you are, the person who is writing this letter right now.

Having the leadership role also means getting everyone on the same page and dividing the work evenly and fairly. You have to be strong and guide and support your team through tough, difficult times. When you will try to divide the work up, you will find that things don’t always go your way and other people want to do their own thing.

“I’m doing parts A, B, and C!”

“Those are the easiest parts, can we split the work more fairly?” You will ask.

“...But they are already mine. I even wrote my name there already.”

“But if you take the easy parts, you will leave us with all the hard tasks.”

“Yea. So what?”

Bringing the team together is the biggest challenge you will face during this project. It’s hard, it’s tough, but when completed, it’s all worth it.

Being a leader will require more work and responsibility than you think. 

Watch how you act, don’t lose your composure, and most importantly treat other team members with respect, no matter how different they see things than you.

Just remember these words: composure, respect, hard work. And you’ll be a great leader.

You got this.

Your older self,

Johan

Narrative Blurb

Life is good for teenager Scott Cruz. He has many friends, does well in school, and lives a happy life. Can life get any better? Well sadly, things changed in a heartbeat for Scott. On the way to his 8th grade graduation, at age fourteen, Scott’s world was turned upside down. While driving on a busy intersection, his taxi driver wasn’t paying attention to the incoming traffic and crashed head on into another car, hard, causing Scott to fracture his skull. Upon waking up and finding himself in the hospital, he gets the bad news: his skull fracture caused him permanent deafness in both ears. Dealing with his sudden disability was hard, but thankfully he had his older brother to go to for help. But what happens if he relies on his brother too much? Well, he’s about to find out.

My Podcast

Click Here!

Poetry 2015

Setting The Stage 
This poem that I will read to you is called The Faucet.
It’s about this lonely faucet on top of a hill who watches happy people who don’t bother to walk up the hill to collect water from it.

This poem is based on a painting from the high school art show. The painting really touched me so that’s why I used it as something to brainstorm ideas from.

In this poem, I choose to not use punctuation because I wanted to keep this poem a slow paced poem so that the emotion slowly becomes stronger and stronger.
As a poet, I want instill the feeling of hope and at the same time pity to the people who hear or read my poem.

The Faucet
Plop Plop
the leaking faucet
dripping in the distance
is waiting for someone
to collect its water

What no one knows
is that this faucet
is filled with water as smooth
as a white marble floor
and as clear
as the sky on a warm
sunny day

It waits all day long
for someone to turn
its shiny tap
so that it can bring water
for everyone to drink

Everyday
the faucet just waits there
doing nothing
hoping for someone to come

But no one
will ever
come

TIME
T- Stanzas: I have 5 stanzas.
Line Breaks: I used line breaks in my poem to slow down the poem to build emotion.
I-  Similes: I used similes to describe how smooth and clear the water is.
M- Onomatopoeia: I used onomatopoeia to describe the sounds of the dripping water.
E- Strong feelings: I tried to add strong feelings to the poem to give the audience a sense of hope and pity.

Blogpost
I learned a lot during the poetry unit. First of all, I learned about the TIME chart. This helps us make our poems better poems. An example of me using an aspect of TIME in my poem was when I used line breaks. In the poem I wrote, "and clear (line break) as the sky on a warm sunny day". Another thing I learned was onomatopoeia and how using it can make your poem better, for example "Plop Plop". Finally, I learned about similes and how to use them effectively. An example of me using similes is "filled with water as smooth as a white marble floor" and "as a white marble floor".

To come up with the idea for this poem, I looked at a painting that really created a feeling for me. Then, I just brainstormed anything this painting makes me feel. From then I just wrote the poem with the mood the painting gave me and the ideas I wrote down from looking at the painting. My poem evolved while improving and revising it. Some changes I made to my version one was that I cut some of the extra non important words. Then in version two, I made sure that my poem made sense and added in some words to make it sound better. I also put in line breaks to change the way the reader would read my poem. With the line breaks, I feel that my poem is more emotional than without line breaks. Finally, in version three, I added some TIME aspects to my poems. I added similes and made some minor changes the line breaks so that I could publish my poem. I hope that my readers will feel the two emotions; hope and pity.

Literary Essay Reflection

1. Are you proud of your literary essay. Why?
Yes, I am proud of my literary essay because I felt I explained everything well. I also am proud of my essay because my peers thought that it was detailed and it explained things well.

2. What did you think of the visual process we used to generate our ideas?
I thought it was a great way to generate ideas because when you make the visual, you put thought into the objects and the meaning of the objects for your essay. This is helpful because it will make writing the essay much easier due to the fact that we thought of our objects and their meaning already.

3. Which was your favorite sentence?
It is worth commemorating from Tangerine the importance of power affecting how much confidence one has.

Social Issues Book Club Reflection

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4M_iki8LnY

Book Club Preparations
One of my responses: 

1. Coach Walski has the power.
Evidence:“You can’t play. You can’t play soccer for Lake Windsor Middle School.”
Explanation:Coach Walski has the power because he is the coach. Coaches can choose the team and kick out players. Coach Walski just kicked Paul from the Lake Windsor Middle School.

2. Gino has the power.
Evidence: “Gino Deluca. He’ll be captain this year. No doubt.” Page 47 “Whoa, he said quietly, and gave me a thumbs-up sign with both hands.” Page 49 Explanation: Gino has the power because of two things, the coach chose him to be captain and he is really good at soccer. I can tell this because when Gino gave a thumbs up to Paul after Paul blocked his shot, Paul knew he would be the goalie. Also, he was elected team captain by Coach Walski because of how good he is. In this case, the more skill you have, the more power you get.

One of my reflections:

1. What I did a good job at?
I think I did a good job piggybacking. I used because after I agreed to what somebody else said. For example, Kaylee said “Paul was not fitting in, but at the same time, fitting in” and I replied “I agree because...”


2. What do you need to work on for next time?
I could speak a bit louder and use more inflection because normally I don’t use inflection.

3. What did you learn?
A possible reason why Victor bullies Paul and Joey is to keep his power high. If he doesn’t tease Paul and Joey, the ‘gang’ will start to dislike him and leave him.

Goals
My Goal: Flag at least two times each reading sessions.

Goal Reflection: I didn't achieve this goal however, I was close. I would sometimes only flag one time or not flag at all. Next time, I should put stickies into the book instead of just writing it on the document.

Writing Goals: Myth Reflection

Writing Goal: I have to use more details and slow the story down so that the readers can picture it in their minds.

I'm halfway there. I have used more details in my writing but haven't really slowed the story down before the climax. One example of me using details in my writing is when I described the boat Ahaanious (main character) used to get to Pluton Island (headquarters of the antagonist). When I got near the climax, I haven't slowed down the story. I haven't captured every single thing the characters do right before the climax. So my next step is to slow the story down during important moments so the readers can picture it.

RLA Reading/Writing Goals

Reading Goal

Goal: I will move from the easy-just right area to the just-right challenging area.

I haven't really moved much. I have moved from the easy-just right area to the just-right area, but not to the just-right challenging area. I've made progress, but not enough to accomplish this goal.


Writing Goal

Goal: I have to use more details and slow the story down during the heart of the story so that the readers can picture the scene in their minds.

I haven't wrote another personal narrative. This goal is from when I wrote the first personal narrative of the year. I haven't wrote one since.

Personal Narrative Reflection

How have you grown as a writer?
I learned how to zoom and slow down on the moment. I also learned how to shorten down the less important parts of the story. More details on the moment, less on non-important stuff.

What new skills do you feel more confident to apply to your narrative writing?
I've learn how to make my leads better with a skill called SACRED seed leads. Each letter in sacred stands for a way to start your story. I also learned a skill called How Do I Do DAT. It's a way to make the body of the writing better. For the conclusion, we end with a "So What. These are 3 skills I feel more confident to apply to future narrative writing pieces.

What challenges did you face when writing your personal narrative?
When I first wrote the story, I didn't zoom into the moment. I had a lot of unimportant details. It was a bit of a challenge to focus on the moment.

How have you surprised yourself as a writer?
When I read my story, I had some emotional sentences. I didn't know I could write like that!

What feedback did you receive that will help you to grow as a writer?
I received a lot of constructive feedback. Most of the feedback told me to zoom in even more into the heart of the story.

The Big Accident

The Big Accident

It was a normal day. I was at a playdate at Adventure Cove having fun with my brother and two of his friends, until the big accident.

I was in line to slide down a slide at the Big Bucket Tree House. Water was dripping from the wet ropes holding the playground together. I looked at the line in front of me and behind me.

“Three more people,” I informed Justin, my brother. He nodded his head in reply.

My brother just got of the slide and out of the way. I looked at my hands and saw multiple scratches from ropes on the playground. I knew more scratches were coming. But I didn’t know that once I get off the slide, Adventure Cove would be over for me.

The lifeguard told me that it was safe to slide and so I sat down and let go of the bars above the start of the slide. Since my swimsuit wasn’t slippery, I had to use my hands to push myself down the slide. Once I got far enough that I could get up and walk to the exit, I got up. I quickly walked so I could catch up the rest. The exit was about a meter away, when I slipped.

I tried to get up and walk but I couldn’t. The only option was to get on my belly and use my hands to drag myself to the exit. I looked around to see if there was a seat I could sit on. When I saw a seat, I stopped looking around and squinted my eyes to double check that it was a seat.

Justin and his two friends continued playing at the Big Bucket Tree House while I sat on the edge of the pool, clueless of what I should do. I tried to walk but I couldn’t. I started to call Justin. “Justin!” I shouted as loud as I could.

Justin screamed back, “What!”

“Come here!” I told him because I didn’t want to shout out what happened.

“Wait!” Justin replied, “I’m playing with my friends!”

He went up the treehouse to slide down the slide again. He was so far away that if I shouted again, he wouldn’t hear it. The second he touched the playground floor, I screamed, “Come here!”

“Wait!” Justin said, becoming annoyed.

He went up the treehouse again to slide down the slide again. I can’t move and can’t call Justin! What should I do? I asked myself. Another minute of hard thinking has gone by and I thought of calling Ryan, Justin’s friend.

“Ryan” I called Ryan.

He came.

“I can’t walk.” I told him.

“Ok” Ryan said and walked away.

The same thing happened again, he didn’t help me! I felt so annoyed that tears started falling out of my eyes. I wiped the first few tears and I kept the rest of the tears in my eye. I just needed someone to tell my mom.

Before long, Ryan told my mom about me. My mom came over and got a lifeguard to help me. The lifeguards got a medic and the medic checked the injury to see if it minor or major. It was a minor injury. Even though Adventure Cove was over for me, I was and still am really thankful that it was just a minor accident. Now the next time I think of rushing, I know that it doesn’t always help. Thanks to my sprained ankle.

My New Macbook Air!

Macbook Air

How would you feel if you woke up and remembered that you had to go to boot camp? Excited or sad? Well when I woke up on the day I had to go to boot camp, I was really excited. Why? Because it was computer boot camp! This year every student was given their own macbook air from the school to use for the year. It’s a big responsibility because the school won’t fix the computer if it gets damaged, you have to fix it yourself. We went to all our classes like it was a normal day but instead of learning RLA or science, you would learn about blogging and laptop care. My favorite class was math, because we learned how to use google chrome and google calendar.

In 5th grade, I thought that the macbook wasn’t something you would use everyday and you wouldn’t have such a big responsibility. Last year, the teacher would remind us to charge out macbook pros and we’d leave them charging till the next day. This year, we have to remind ourselves to charge the laptop and put it in our bag before we leave for school. In these two days I learned about how much of a responsibility we have to have this $1000 machine. I also learned about how cool it is to use google calendar. My math teacher taught us this app. She would have us drive the projector to show everyone how to fix problems people came across with the app. That was fun.

Now I learned that having a macbook air is really cool and is a huge responsibility. This learning will impact us in the future. It will help us be more responsible and discover what’s in this new technology and more. I think that the macbook airs will help us a lot with our learning like helping us be more organized and answering our questions.

Photo From Wikipedia

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Using Your Laptop

DCA Plege

As a responsible Digital Citizen at SAS, I, Johan , promise to respect and protect myself, others, and intellectual property while learning, sharing, and collaborating online.